Eastern Standard [Boston, MA]

After a leisurely stroll through the Public Gardens, we had a very nice dinner at Eastern Standard this past Saturday. DH was able to snag an early table for 2 at 5:00, which is the first seating. However the bar is open at 4:30 and it was full by the time we arrived.

It is a very impressive space, classy but comfortable and the music was not too loud, which I appreciate more as I get older. We were seated in a banquette for 2, which was very fun, although at 5 ft +, I was a little lower than I like.

We started with wine and a mocktail, bread service which included a small serving of pickled veggies, like a giardiniera and nicely salted butter, along with 6 shrimp cocktail. The sauce had the right amount of horseradish without overpowering the shrimp, which were large and very tasty.

Dinner was the halibut over buttered leeks and potato fondue. This was the best meal of the night. The leeks were just perfect, still a little bite to them but not too strong, complemented the halibut nicely. We also had the prime rib, which is the Saturday special. It was a little underwhelming, unfortunately. Two slices of beef, one overcooked (for me) and the other rather undercooked. Both slices were badly carved, no au jus served, 2 popovers on the plate, and horseradish cream. Everything tasted fine as a meal but the presentation was just not there compared to the rest of the service.

We closed out with the creme brulee which was perfect to share and quite delicious.

Overall, definitely more positives than negatives and we are already thinking about the next time. Service was spot on, not overbearing but always available.

Although we may try their sister restaurant in the same plaza, All That Fish & Oyster.

We’ve been to All That Fish + Oyster multiple times and loved every visit, but have yet to successfully score a rez at Eastern Standard. ATF+O hasn’t yet attracted the following of ESK, but it has all the hallmarks of a Harker project.

The menu looks very good, and we hope to try it next week. ES is worth the trip but would think about getting there at 4:30 for seats at the bar. Always our preference.

We’ve now eaten at Eastern Standard three times since the re-open. Twice sitting at the bar, and a week ago Saturday at a high top table. All three times the drinks and food has been very, very good, and the service is slowly improving, though not quite at the pinnacle it was at it’s height in Kenmore (I always felt that it had the best non-fine dining service of any restaurant in Boston). I’ve eaten some of my favorites from the menu, and almost everything has been great. The artichoke agnolotti is absolutely amazing, and my only regret is that we didn’t order it on our first trip in. It’s a spectacular dish. The burger I had on our last trip was only OK, as the grease/juices had soaked the lower bun completely, but the fries were as excellent as they always were. Never got to All That Fish & Oyster before it closed, but Equal Measure is every bit the vibe that the Hawthorne had on it’s opening with top notch cocktails, and interesting looking snacks. We stopped in on our second ES trip for a night cap, and will be making an effort to go there for drinks and snacks (there are enough to put together a meal from them) in the near future.

I’m so happy to read this!!

How did you find the noise level? We’ve heard reports it can be difficult to have a conversation.

We’ve sat at the bar twice and a bar adjacent table once, and didn’t find it too loud, though I wonder if it’s worse near the back where the tables are closer.

We were there about three months ago with a party of six. We were sitting toward the front at a round table and all of us found the noise level to be quite high - almost uncomfortable.

Very long - Report for Equal Measure and Standard Italian

Executive summary: Went to dine at Eastern Standard, ended up at Standard Italian instead. Had a very nice experience.

I can’t believe ESK re-opened almost two years ago! Time flies…and despite being a fairly regular customer and huge fan of its prior incarnation, I only just made it over there (in a sense) last night. Since I’ve been looking forward to this for some time I decided to document it. I hope you’ll enjoy my book report!

We had a reservation for a slightly later table at ESK, and decided to first visit Equal Measure, its sister bar, for a drink. It was still pretty early, around 6:00, and we found ourselves in a nearly empty room. Just us and two other patrons at the bar. I’ve said it before in other threads, but the city often just seems emptier that it used to on a Friday evening, which makes me kind of sad.

In any case, the room is nicely appointed as I’d expect from the group that runs Eastern Standard, and the bar menu had some very interesting stuff including a “culinary” section that had a few non-sweet drinks made with vegetable juices. Unfortunately they were out of the two that caught my eye, so I opted for a drink with strawberry and sparkling wine, and my dining companion tried a stirred drink of whiskey and bitters.

The strawberry drink was, unfortunately, not especially to my liking. I felt that it was notably unbalanced and needed some extra acidity. The stirred drink was much better, but kind of a typical stirred whiskey drink.

To accompany the drinks, deviled eggs with caviar.

These were well done and very tasty. Nothing especially notable if you’ve had a deviled egg before, which is perhaps a good thing in this case. Clean, simple, and a great accompaniment to some drinks.

Service at first felt a bit perfunctory, which was surprising due to the completely empty bar, but the bartender warmed up a bit as we sat. We mentioned that we had a later reservation for Eastern Standard, and she heavily suggested that we consider heading to Standard Italian first, and then “maybe visit Eastern Standard for an after dinner drink.” The underlying implication, which she very diplomatically worked around and didn’t actually come out and say directly, was that Eastern Standard’s food is a bit subpar. At this point we decided to have a second drink at Standard Italian and see where it took us.

The scene at Standard Italian, I was happy to see, was quite a bit more buzzing than at Equal Measure. Not exactly packed, but a decent crowd. We sat at the very end of the bar. The room here is much sparser and “harder” than Equal Measure. Bar stools have no backs, and everything feels somewhat utilitarian.

We ordered a couple of drinks – a “Chef Brian’s Negroni” for me, another stirred cocktail for my dining companion, this one featuring vodka and Benedictine.

The Negroni was…well, a Negroni. Not a bad one! The vodka and Benedictine cocktail was just as sweet as you might imagine such a creation to be. Not something I was personally into, but my dining companion enjoyed it.

To go along with the drinks, onion dip with trout roe. (Two for two on roe – always a good start to the evening.)

As we were eating the dip – which was very tasty – we realized we were hungrier than we’d thought, and decided to try a trio of cured meats. From the menu of around eight or nine choices we decided on soppressata, speck, and wagyu bresaola.

This was quite a nice plate of food! The soppressata in particular was amazing (I need to figure out what the producer is), and the other two meats were very good. The bresaola was just bresaola. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that; but I have to admit that I ordered it thinking it would be extra-special due to its wagyu provenance.) Olives were mixed in with some cubes of provolone, and the bread – some sort of focaccia variation – had a nice crunch.

Service was notably better at Standard Italian. The bartender engaged with us despite being extremely busy for the first part of our time there, answered various questions we had about the menu, and generally made us feel welcome. One thing I really liked: The stirred vodka/Benedictine drink pictured above came with a small carafe on the side of some extra drink. As my dining companion finished the first glass, instead of merely refilling empty glass, the bartender swapped it out for a fresh one. A very nice touch. Jackson Cannon was behind the bar most of our time here, which can’t have hurt. He wasn’t directly tending bar – I’m not sure if he does that anymore – but he was expediting. It was great to see him in action again after several years.

As we finished the meat plate it was almost time for our Eastern Standard reservation and we asked the bartender if we should stay at Standard Italian or move on. We received much the same response as we had at Equal Measure: An indication that maybe we’d enjoy the food more if we stayed at Standard Italian.

So…that’s exactly what we did. A couple of glasses of Nebbiolo (decent), and two shared plates: pumpkin-filled tortelloni with brown butter and balsamic, and Chicken Marsala.

The tortelloni plate was split by the kitchen, so there would be six in a normal serving. In any case: this was really, really good. Rich, comforting, perfect. The chicken marsala was also excellent. Fried, which I was not expecting, and very crispy. Sauce well seasoned and flavorful. Really nicely done in both cases.

We’d had enough at this point and decided to pass on Eastern Standard altogether. Not sure I mind at all given the undertone of the evening. I am also sorry to report that as we left Standard Italian - just before 9:00 - it was practically deserted. Perhaps Equal Measure would have filled up by then? I didn’t stick my head in to check, but I hope these places can survive.

All in all, a nice evening. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!

More than happy to read along!

I find it super useful when people share the details of their experience, as exactly as you did. Helps me understand whether a place would be a fit for me. Especially given the increasing cost of restaurant dining these days, I appreciate this level of information.

We found ourselves at the bar last Saturday around 1pm at Eastern Standard, after attending the Commonwealth Pen Show.

The only menu available was the brunch one, unfortunately. The bar was not particularly full. The lone bartender was attending to one other set of patrons and a couple orders for the few folks scattered in the vicinity. When he eventually got to us, I started with a vodka martini and was asked which vodka and whether I wanted wet or dry. I responded “Tito’s” and “filthy”, specifying further I wanted it dirty with blue cheese olives. I did get blue cheese olives and Tito’s (after he came back to ask again which vodka). I detected a little brine. BF got a Notch Lager on draft.

We got the smoked salmon spread appetizer. It comes with “everything crackers”. What the menu doesn’t tell you is that it only comes with 3 of them.

We loaded as much spread (and the pickled onions hiding under the crackers) onto them as we could and still had a fair bit left.

So, we ate it with our forks, because it seemed like it would be uncivilized to put our tongues in it directly. I decided to downshift to a rosé.

BF moved on to the short rib hash, which arrived with both homefries and corn tortillas. He also got a scallion biscuit on the side, because he can never say no to a biscuit. The hash was tucked under the eggs and the eggs were under a salsa verde. I tasted mostly bell pepper in the bite I tried, although he enjoyed (I think the opportunity to make tacos helped).

I cobbled together some plates off the raw bar and appetizers - bone marrow, along with the lobster salad, because that felt like a fun kind of surf and turf situation. I also couldn’t resist oysters (they were somewhere from the Cape, but I don’t remember where now). Fries were an afterthought, because I needed something a little more substantial in my stomach for the martini and rosé than an everything cracker and a half.

I was not expecting, nor was it mentioned on the menu, chile oil on the bone marrow. It was certainly tasty, but overwhelmed the bone marrow’s flavor. I scraped most of it off. The bones were unevenly split, so one was a bit over rendered and the other was slightly undercooked and I ended up removing a membrane that was attached to some of the marrow. Salad was a nice counterpoint to the plate, with a dressing that had a little sesame oil.

The lobster salad was executed fine, but was about 1/4 cup of lobster salad on a lot of butter lettuce for $25. The oysters were the best part of the meal for me - perfectly shucked with no grit and nicely briny. Fries were plentiful and not greasy.

I was excited to eat here, as we’d enjoyed its former incarnation. I would try it again for dinner. But I have to say the shine is off.

That is such a bummer to read. I have such amazing memories of the original, as do many of us, I know.

Hard to rekindle the spark that the original had. It’s a tough business. Pulling for Garret Harker, though. Branch Line seems to be doing just fine.